up piracy, but to punish all
colonists who should encourage the freebooters by commercial dealings
with them. At these laws the pirates laughed, and the colonists winced,
and there were many people in Charles Town who vowed that if the King
wanted them to help him put down piracy, he must show them some other
way of getting imported goods at reasonable prices. So the pirates went
on capturing merchantmen whenever they had a chance, and the Carolinians
continued to look forward with interest to the bargain days which always
followed the arrival of a pirate ship. But this state of things did not
last, and the time came when the people of Charles Town experienced a
change of mind. The planters were now growing large quantities of rice,
and this crop became so valuable that the prosperity of the colonies
greatly increased. And now the pirates also became very much interested
in the rice crops, and when they had captured four or five vessels
sailing out of Charles Town heavily laden with rice, the people of that
town suddenly became aware of the true character of a pirate. He was now
in their eyes an unmitigated scoundrel who not only stole goods from all
nations, which he brought to them and sold at low prices, but he
actually stole their goods, their precious rice which they were sending
to England.

The indignant citizens of Charles Town took a bold stand, and such a
bold one it was that when part of a crew of pirates, who had been put
ashore by their comrades on account of a quarrel, made their way to the
town, thinking they could tell a tale of shipwreck and rely upon the
friendship of their old customers, they were taken into custody, and
seven out of the nine were hanged.

The occasional repetition of such acts as this, and the exhibition of
dangling pirates, hung up like scarecrows at the entrance of the
harbors, dampened the ardor of the freebooters a good deal, and for some
years they kept away from the harbor of Charles Town, which had once
been to them such a friendly port.

Chapter XXII

The Great Blackbeard comes upon the Stage

So long as the people of the Carolinas were prosperous and able to
capture and execute pirates who interfered with their trade the Atlantic
sea-robbers kept away from their ports, but this prosperity did not
last. Indian wars broke out, and in the course of time the colonies
became very much weakened and impoverished, and then it was that the
harbor of Charles Town began t